“Unlikely cause if there was then the weapons would be scattered around.”

“Unless there is someone here who collects them and brings them here.”

“I like the idea that it is a requirement to leave weapons behind. The idea of some guy walking around collecting weapons dropped by the dead is beyond creepy.”

I nodded. “True. Yeah requiring them to leave their weapons here would make it safer wherever they went.”

“You know what else this means?” She waved a hand at the room behind us.

“No what?”

“That the portals or gates have been functioning for hundreds, if not thousands of years.”

“Good god and all of them leading here. But if these are some kind of timeline entry points then that makes the actual timeline more fluid, not as stable as scientists believe.”

“Maybe the timeline we lived in is stable but has a core that functions as a way for travelers to move though time.”

Also unnerving, I thought. “Invisible until you enter any portal. I entered one where there were auto-laser canons set to fire on anyone entering that gate. Nearly killed me, but I wasn’t so far in that I couldn’t exit which I did as quickly as possible.”

I had finished washing the dishes and she drying. We went through the weapons room and back onto the front porch.

“I think I’m more confused now than I was when I left home,” I said.

“Yeah well welcome to my world.”

“None of this makes sense. Are the people who enter portals preselected or can anyone enter?” I recalled William’s screening and knew at least part of the answer. “Anyone can enter, but not everyone is allowed to proceed far beyond the entry point.”

“Or they are preselected but must prove they’re not whatever, evil or mentally disturbed, or something and if they are they’re sent back.”

Guessing will not provide answers. “I wonder if we will be allowed to exit through any portal or if who or whatever selected us will also select of we are allowed to go.”

Margaret looked like she was about to explode. “I just want to get the hell away from here and try to find what I’m supposed to do next. Until you arrived, I felt like I was living in a maze built to cause confusion.”

I laughed lightly. “And I fixed that?”

“No, I guess not, but maybe together we can discover answers.”

“Worth a try. Where’s the brick wall you trailed?”

She pointed to the left. “I think it’s a dead end.”

“Except for the couples, who were with you.”

She walked close to me, balled up her fists and I thought she would pummel me. “Please stop.”

“What?”

“Talking in circles. You look and sound like a guy who knows stuff. I’m just the nurse who shot and killed her husband and then…” She ran down as if realizing she’d revealed more than she’d intended to.